Wednesday, September 28, 2016

Iraq snapshot

Wednesday, September 28, 2016. Chaos and violence continue, Barack Obama's sending more US troops into Iraq, Haider al-Abadi pens an embarrassing column, Hillary Clinton hopes the press keeps forgetting how she raised the issue of George H.W. Bush's adultery in the 1992 presidential race, and much more.

Quick translation of the above posted to Haider al-Abadi's website this morning (he's the prime minister of Iraq):

As they prepare for the major battle to fully liberate the city of
Mosul and eliminate the gangs of [the Islamic State], and in light of
the fact that trainers and advisers from the international coalition
will speed up the conclusion of the battle, in consultation with US
President Barack Obama and at the request of the Iraqi government the
number of American trainers and advisers under the umbrella of the
international coalition in Iraq will be increased to provide backup for
the Iraqi security forces during the Liberation of Mosul -- and this
size of advisers and trainers will reduce once Mosul has been liberated.
We emphasize that the role of trainers and advisers is not combat but
only for training and consultation and the only ones who will liberate
the land is our [Iraqi] troops.

This means more US troops in Iraq.

Haider's not agreeing to more on site. He wouldn't need to consult on that. He's agreeing to more coming into the country.

On June 19, 2014, Barack Obama was quite clear about how many US troops might be going back into Iraq.President Barack Obama: We have had advisors in Iraq through our embassy, and we’re prepared
to send a small number of additional American military advisors -- up to
300 -- to assess how we can best train, advise, and support Iraqi
security forces going forward. American forces will not be returning to combat in Iraq, but we will
help Iraqis as they take the fight to terrorists who threaten the Iraqi
people, the region, and American interests as well.

Despite that assertion two years ago, Kalin and Torbati note that this "new deployment is the third such boost in U.S. troop levels in Iraq since April" while Ben Kesling and Carol E. Lee (DOW JONES NEWSWIRES) add, "The latest increase follows the separate decision earlier this month to add roughly 400 troops, sent primarily to
staff a logistics hub near the city of Qayara, south of Mosul." Focusing on the numbers, Daniel Wasserbly (IHS JANE'S DEFENCE WEEKLY) explains, "The total authorised US military personnel for Iraq is now around 5,250
troops, but hundreds more are understood to be operating there on a
'rotational' basis through temporary duty assignments."

Financial columnist Liz Peek (who used to be part of Marlo Thomas' WOW while it was active) Tweets:

This shouldn't be surprising. In the November 2, 2007 snapshot
-- five years ago -- we covered the transcript of the interview
Michael R. Gordon and Jeff Zeleny did with then-Senator Barack Obama who
was running in the Democratic Party's primary for the party's
presidential nomination -- the transcript, not the bad article the paper
published, the actual transcript. We used the transcript to write "NYT: 'Barack Obama Will Keep Troops In Iraq'"
at Third. Barack made it clear in the transcript that even after
"troop withdrawal" he would "leave behind a residual force." What did
he say this residual force would do? He said, "I think that we should
have some strike capability. But that is a very narrow mission, that we
get in the business of counter terrorism as opposed to counter
insurgency and even on the training and logistics front, what I have
said is, if we have not seen progress politically, then our training
approach should be greatly circumscribed or eliminated."

This
is not withdrawal. This is not what was sold to the American people.
Barack is very lucky that the media just happened to decide to take that
rather explosive interview -- just by chance, certainly the New York Times
wasn't attempting to shield a candidate to influence an election,
right? -- could best be covered with a plate of lumpy, dull mashed
potatoes passed off as a report. In the transcript, Let-Me-Be-Clear
Barack declares, "I want to be absolutely clear about this, because
this has come up in a series of debates: I will remove all our combat
troops, we will have troops there to protect our embassies and our
civilian forces and we will engage in counter terrorism activities."

So
when the memo announces counterterrorism activies, Barack got what he
wanted, what he always wanted, what the media so helpfully and so
frequently buried to allow War Hawk Barack to come off like a dove of
peace.

Not everyone is kicking back with a smile and popping open a can of beer as more US troops are sent into Iraq. Ethan Forman (SALEM NEWS) reports on the reaction from US House Rep and Iraq War veteran Seth Moulton:When asked about the role the U.S. troop advisers might play, Moulton
said he has no doubt these troops could wind up seeing combat."This
is clearly a combat mission," said Moulton, who noted that when he was
in Iraq in 2004, his platoon had the role of being combat advisers to
Iraqi troops in Najaf in central Iraq. But, when they went to the
assistance of the Iraqis, the U.S. troops saw some of the fiercest
fighting of the Iraq war."We do need to defeat ISIS," he said, but the key is "how will this time be different."

Sadly, Seth Moulton is a rare Democrat with a spine.

The biggest disappointment in Congress in the last eight years would be US House Rep Barbara Lee who called for an end to the Iraq War when Bully Boy Bush was in the Oval Office but today can only manage . . .

I don't know if the fake ass gets it or not but America watched her for the last seven years claim that if US troops were still in Afghanistan next year -- always next year -- she'd be doing something in Congress.

So, there are a few questions we could ask, such as:1. Even if we retake Mosul, is this really going to measurably fix the situation in Iraq in the long term?2. What happens when we leave?3. When the Iraqi forces prove incapable of maintaining whatever we accomplish, does that mean we can’t leave?

But then again, why even bother asking these questions? It’s
clear that Obama, and the entire American political leadership, is just
fine with repeating the mistakes of the past, over and over and over,
with no concern for the fact that it just doesn’t work. If the sign of
insanity is repeating the same stupid action ad nauseam while expecting
different results, then what would you call this?

As we fight, we are aware that military means alone are not
enough to end ISIL. As the prime minister and commander in chief of our
forces, I spend as much time on the military aspect of the war as I do
in addressing the causes that led us to today.Here I
must admit that as Iraqis, we need to do more to fight sectarianism and
corruption, two evils that are no less dangerous to our society than
terrorism and ISIL. We will not waver in the war against them because of
the war against ISIL.[. . .]We realize that sectarianism created the gaps that ISIL and its
predecessors managed to temporarily fill. Their continued presence in
our country hinders the process of reconciliation. Expelling ISIL is a
prerequisite for peace, but help from the international community is
still needed for us to reach that day.

When, Haider, when are you going to do something to stop the persecution of the Sunnis?

You were installed as prime minister in the fall of 2014.

It's two years later.

The persecution continues.

You're no better than Nouri al-Maliki and his policies of persecution gave the Islamic State the footing they needed.

In Boburg's example of Juanita Broaddrick, the woman has consistently accused Bill Clinton of rape.

Stop calling assault "sexual assault." I don't use the term "sex crime" either.

These are assaults and rapes and attempted rapes.

Aside from that?

Boburg misses one of the biggest events. Yes, the article reviews how Hillary collaborated in smearing women who accused Bill Clinton of assault and of rape and of harassment and even notes Monica Lewinsky on the topic (Hillary smeared her on THE TODAY SHOW).

But Hillary and her whiners love to claim that it's off sides, impolite for anyone to bring up these affairs.

It's just wrong -- boo, hoo.

What a load of s**t.

First off, we know Bill couldn't keep it in his pants the last time he was living in the White House and a lot of us know he's been cheating on Hillary since leaving the White House (and who the main woman is) so there's a good chance if Hillary's back in the White House with Bill that Bill's going to get caught in another affair.

That's going to drag the nation through the gutter yet again.

She's running for president, it's an issue.

Her little snit fit during the Monica days demonstrate that maybe such a development would leave her unable to function as president.

So it's an issue.

If she wants to claim to be a defender of women, her attacks on those who have accused her husband in the past is an issue.

There's that and so much more.

Her whiners insist it is unfair to hold Hillary accountable for the behavior of her husband.

She chose to stay with him.

I don't mean after Monica, I mean after Gennifer.

And she slimed Gennifer while lying that her husband hadn't had an affair with Gennifer Flowers.

She chose to stay with him, that's an endorsement of his continued actions.

And despite his long pattern of cheating, when Monica was exposed, she attacked Lewinsky.

So she needs to be held accountable.

But there's another part, it's the part of the story that Ava and I covered back in July:Bill slept with Gennifer Flowers -- as he admitted under oath near the end of the 90s.

But in 1992, when Ms. Flowers was telling her tale, what did Hillary do?

It was THE NEW YORKER, you cultural idiot, she wrote for THE NEW YORKER, not THE NEW YORK TIMES.

And it wasn't poor Hillary in 1992.

Not in the pages of VANITY FAIR.

"Double standard."

Bob knows the term, he never quotes Hillary on it, nor does anyone else.

Her husband slept with Jennifer Flowers and she knew about it.

But the 'victim' Hillary chose to use Gail Sheehy's interview with her
for VANITY FAIR to insist that it was a "double standard" because people
knew about "Bush and his carrying on, all of which is apparently well
known in Washington."

That's our 'feminist' Hillary.

Her cheating husband is getting questioned?

She tosses Barbara Bush under the bus.

Hillary's never been a victim.

She's always been involved.

She's always figured out how to go after Bill's various mistresses,
she's always figured out how to present herself as innocent and wronged.

Ty saw THE WASHINGTON POST article and called me ticked off because that article doesn't note the VANITY FAIR article. I don't read e-mails to THIRD about what Ava and I write there. Ty passed on over the phone that negative e-mails on the above insisted that never happened and we'd made the whole thing up.

Too lazy to go to a real library and look up the article in VANITY FAIR all those years ago, they just decided it was a lie.

Apparent accidents, and even some apparent mistakes in judgment, had emerged over time as less accidental than strategic. There was Hillary Clinton's "gaffe" in complaining to Gail Sheehy, interviewing her for Vanity Fair, that the press was following a "double standard" in dwelling on her husband's alleged friendship with Gennifer Flowers, since Anne Cox Chambers ("sittin' there in her sunroom") had told her about "Bush and his carrying on, all of which is apparently well known in Washington." This was an "embarrassment," a "mistake," and yet the appearance of the Vanity Fair piece coincided with Clinton strategists issuing the same preemptive warning to the Bush campaign; with Ron Brown suggesting that if the questions about adultery were to persist, he thought similar questions should be put to Bush; and with Democratic consultant Robert Squier suggesting on the NBC Today show that Bush be asked what he called "the Jennifer question." Nor was just the single point scored: there was also considerable secondary gain in showing Mrs. Clinton as "feminine," a weaker vessel, gossiping with a friend over tea in the sunroom and then retailing the gossip to a new friend -- who, in the "unfrminine" role of reporter, the wife's moment of indiscretion in her husband's defense. The erring but contrite wife could then be firmly but gently "reprimanded" by the presumptive CINC, her husband ("The main point is, she apologized . . . she made a mistake and she's acknowledge it"), an improved role for both of them.

To the press, in a presidential election, Hillary raised the issue of George H.W. Bush cheating on Barbara Bush with his own Jennifer Fitzgerald. (Donna Brazile did the same during the Michael Dukakis campaign and was forced to leave the campaign as a result.)

It was not by accident, it was not by chance.

And not only did she herself raise the issue of adultery in a presidential campaign, she did it while playing stereotypical archetypes to manipulate the press.

Which is the other issues -- she's played with gender roles before, she's worked them when she's wanted to.

She's no innocent in this.

That's the point Joan Didion's making in the paragraph above.

And if you're too cheap to buy a good book -- or maybe you're a victim of the 'rebounding' recovery as so many are -- you can find Joan's essay online for free here at THE NEW YORK REVIEW OF BOOKS -- scroll a little over a third way down the page for the paragraphs. (Paragraphs? In the book it's one paragraph, in the online essay, the paragraph is split into two paragraphs.)

High ranking #Iraq|i army officers among 33 others killed and 6 others wounded in a snap #ISIS attack north Baghdad; according to Aamaq..

47 retweets31 likes

And the US Defense Dept announced today:

Strikes in IraqAttack, fighter and remotely piloted aircraft conducted 10
strikes in Iraq, coordinated with and in support of Iraq’s government:-- Near Qaim, a strike destroyed an ISIL vehicle bomb-making facility.-- Near Kisik, a strike produced inconclusive results.-- Near Mosul, four strikes engaged an ISIL tactical unit,
suppressed a mortar system and destroyed an anti-air artillery system
and a tunnel.-- Near Qayyarah, two strikes destroyed two ISIL vehicles and a mortar system.-- Near Ramadi, a strike engaged an ISIL tactical unit.-- Near Sultan Abdallah, a strike destroyed an ISIL mortar system and damaged an excavator.

Task force officials define a strike as one or more kinetic
events that occur in roughly the same geographic location to produce a
single, sometimes cumulative, effect. Therefore, officials explained, a
single aircraft delivering a single weapon against a lone ISIL vehicle
is one strike, but so is multiple aircraft delivering dozens of weapons
against buildings, vehicles and weapon systems in a compound, for
example, having the cumulative effect of making those targets harder or
impossible for ISIL to use. Accordingly, officials said, they do not
report the number or type of aircraft employed in a strike, the number
of munitions dropped in each strike, or the number of individual
munition impact points against a target. Ground-based artillery fired in
counterfire or in fire support to maneuver roles is not classified as a
strike.

About Me

We do not open attachments. Stop e-mailing them. Threats and abusive e-mail are not covered by any privacy rule. This isn't to the reporters at a certain paper (keep 'em coming, they are funny). This is for the likes of failed comics who think they can threaten via e-mails and then whine, "E-mails are supposed to be private." E-mail threats will be turned over to the FBI and they will be noted here with the names and anything I feel like quoting.
This also applies to anyone writing to complain about a friend of mine. That's not why the public account exists.